Keeping Chatsworth Current with the 12th Duke of Devonshire

so you were about twelve years old when you moved here to Chatsworth with your parents what was it like to move in it wasn't such a huge shock because we were too close we were here not every day but most days either wandering around the garden or whatever we're doing or showing people around or looking at things or because there was a lot of stuff being discovered that it hadn't been properly lived in for nearly a hundred years it hadn't been lived in as a family home for more than a few months of the year so you've just given Chatsworth its biggest makeover in decades if not a century what were the most challenging parts of the project originate was dentistry it was just the infrastructure of the pipes you know the water the electrics lighting this sort of things and then we run out we're going to make a mess so that we thought we would tidy up the finished product as well and so then we also thought we knew that the visitor route was not really ideal too many stairs not accessible particularly for people in wheelchairs so we added a few bits to the brief and it got bigger and bigger and what about the interior that's what we were thoughts about that one of the first things we did when we moved here four years ago was to try to simplify the staterooms to make it easier for people to understand what these extraordinary very grand rooms were because they didn't have a function most rooms have a function a dining room or a kitchen or whatever but the staterooms are religious they're to walk through they were built in the hope and expectation the William and Mary would come and stay which never happened they decorated in his grandest hours was available with the the artists of the day doing the ceilings and paintings and carving a wonderful China and so on but they were really just display rooms and so we put them back to as near as we could to what they would have been like in 75 1700 and I think that we've carried on with that we've put some more of the house back into a particular date I understand you've done a lot of rebuilding outside can you talk about that we have started cleaning the outside for the first time since it was built which is 300 years ago and we find through the historical research through our archives and actually taking paint samples from the stem work that the finials on the top of the urns and so on the flames coming out were originally gilded so that is our intention my parents had gilded the window frames on two fronts and we're going to extend that by also gilding the glazing bars so it'll be very historically correct or very vulgar depending on which way you don't want to look at it I think it's great this house is built to show off it was built to show off the people who lived there and now it's built to show off itself because the house and the garden and the park are really what it's all about now so bling is not a new concept no it says on the sides front which was the first front of the house that people saw when they arrived in those days Kevin day tutors in three foot high gold letters and that was put there for just the same reason as Donald Trump put don't rumble of Trump Tower on the top of one of his Brody it's saying I built this property I'm very proud of it I want people to know it's me living here and that's why they did it you've been showing contemporary sculpture here for several years in the beyond limits exhibitions how did that start Henry Windham my colleague in London suggested it wasn't called beyond in the Thames but it suggested having an outdoor sculpture for sale exhibition which saw the president been doing in Florida for a few years but they'd never done it in the UK or in Europe and so that was great the Sotheby's towards good idea we thought it a good idea and that the following year 25 amazing pieces of sculpture arises a great big Robert Indiana love on the Cascade and bright red and quite startling for you know this quite rather calm old garden yeah and it startled people it frightened people I think until they realized it was temporary you've recently installed a pretty extraordinary piece by Richard long here yeah it's a piece called komal State Line which we've had whoo quite a while now we bought it from Roche court down in Wiltshire and then it was installed in our garden in Yorkshire where we used to live and then we moved it to lismore castellón County Waterford and Ireland where it stayed for about six or seven years and during that time Richard long had an exhibition in the little castle Arts Gallery there which was serendipitous the reticle people came in his told it couple of months ago and it's now up next to the canal pond and it looks fantastic though what's it like there to live in a house that has two hundred and ninety seven thousand visitors a year it's wonderful it's really great I mean Chatsworth couldn't survive or shouldn't survive without as they are the heartbeat of the place and it's great to have them and we depend on them utterly but even if we didn't depend on them for looking after the place to be able to share it with so many people is a real pleasure it's the most wonderful place to be and it's a wonderful job to have it's such a privilege to live in the middle of this beautiful place with great people working with us and it's in every way ideal

Channel: Sotheby's

Views: 88,829

Keywords: 4380960888001, SamsungTV, appletv, museumnetwork, firetv, sothebystv, chatsworthhouse, Decorative Arts

Id: RlCBlLElJas

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2015